thou shalt bruise his heele Quest What is meant here by Enmity Answ A bitter immoderate inveterate irreconciliable and endlesse hatred and division opposite to that amity and familiarity which formerly had been betweene the Woman and the Serpent Quest Betweene whom was this Enmity proclaimed Answ Betweene the Serpent and his seed on the one side and the Woman and her seed on the other Quest What is meant by the Serpent and his Seed Answ First by the Serpent we are to understand Satan who opened the Serpents mouth and caused it to speake with mans voice as the Lord by an Angell opened the mouth of Balaams Asse Numbers 22. Secondly By the Serpents seed is meant the whole generation of wicked men as all Interpreters conclude and other Scriptures make cleare calling them Serpents Generation of Vipers and Children of the Devill Matth. 23.33 John 8.44 1 John 3.10 Quest What is meant by the Woman and her Seed Answ By the woman is meant Eve by her seed we are to understand first and chiefly Christ the singular Seed who was so the Seed of the Woman as that he was not of the Man Gal. 4.4 being borne of a Virgin Isaiah 7.14 Secondly It imployeth all his members the Elect when once regenerate who are not onely Eves seed as she was the Mother of all living by nature but by faith also as else where they are called the seed or children of Abraham Gal. 3.29 Quest What occasioned the Lord to proclaime this enmity Answ Adams sinne in eating the forbidden fruit and Satans malice in moving and seducing him thereunto was the meritorious cause the originall of this discord is from Originall sin Quest What Instruction affords this Answ First That to be without reproaches and persecutions wee may rather wish then hope For what peace can we looke for betweene the Seed of the Woman and the Seed of the Serpent seeing God himselfe from the beginning hath set them at enmity Yea once to expect it were an effect of frenzy not of hope Secondly If the Lord hath put this enmity between us and the wicked here is comfort in suffering warrant in opposing Thirdly If the Seed of the Woman fight on Christs side and they have Gods Word for their warrant they are sure to have him assist them and prevent their enemies And is not that God we fight for able enough to vindicate all our wrongs Quest Doth that hatred and enmity continue to this day Answ Yes the words are set downe indefinitely without limitation and so signifie that it shall be perpetuall from the beginning of time to the end of all time When time saith one began this malice first began nor will it end but with the latest man it is an everlasting Act of Parliament like a Statute in Magna Charta Quest To proceed from Explication to Confirmation and so to Application How prove you That there hath beene in all ages past is now and ever shall bee betweene the wicked and the godly a perpetuall Warre enmity and strife according to the Lords Prediction or Proclamation Answ For proofe I could produce testimonies and examples innumerable there being scarce a page in the Bible which doth not expresse or imply somewhat touching this enmity Yea as if the Scriptures contained nothing else the Holy Ghost significantly calls them the Booke of the Battles of the Lord Numb 21.14 as Rupertus well observes But I will confine my selfe and onely mention three examples in every age 1. To begin with the first age Viz. the old World before the Flood We reade of this war enmity and strife betweene Caine and Abel 1 John 3.12 Between Lâ—mech and the holy Seed Gen. 4.23 24. and between those wicked Gyants which Moses speakes of and the sonnes of God Gen. 6.2 to 12. Yea those Gyants bade battle to Heaven as our Mythologists add to ver 4. 2. After the Flood before the Law betweene all the men of Sodome and righteous Let Gen. 19.4 9.11 2 Pet. 2.8 Betweene Hagar and Ishmael the Bondwoman and her sonne and Sarah and Isaac the Free-woman and her son Gen. 21.9 10. Gal. 4 29. And between Esau and Jacob first in the wombe the more plainely to shadow out this enmity Gen. 25.22 23. and after they were borne Gen. 27.41 3. After the Law before Christ betweene Doeg and the eighty five Priests which he slew with the edge of the sword 1 Sam. 22.18 19. Betweene Jezabell and all the Prophets of the Lord which she destroyed 1 Kings 18.13 14. And betweene the Heads in Israel in Micahs time and all that were good Micah 3.2 4. Since the Gospell in the time of Christ and his Apostles this enmity so manifested it selfe not onely in the Gentiles but in the Jewes Gods owne people who first moved those persecutions against Christ and his Members that having beheaded John Baptist his Harbinger and crucified himselfe the Lord of life we read that of all the Twelve none dyed a naturall death save onely Saint John and he also was banished by Domitian to Pathmos and at another time thrust into a Tun of seething oyle at Rome as Tertullian and Saint Hierom doe report See Acts 7.51 to 60. 12.1 to 5. Rom. 8.36 Iohn 21.18 19. Now all these besides many other of his Disciples suffered martyrdome meerely for professing the faith of Christ whereof some were stoned some crucified some beheaded some thrust thorow with Speares some burnt with fire with a multitude of other Beleevers for Ecclesiasticall History makes mention of two thousand which suffered the same day with Nicanor Acts and Monuments page 32. which makes Saint Pâ—ul cry out I thinke that God hath set forth us the last Apostles as men appointed to death 1 Corinâ—h 4.9 5. After the Apostles if we consider the residue of the ten Persecutions raysed by the Romans against the Christians which was for three hundred yeares till the comming of godly Constantine we find that there was such an innumerable company of innocent Christians put to death and tormented that Saint Hierome in his Epistle to Chromatius and Heâ—â—odorus saith There is no one day in the whole yeare unto which the number of five thousand Martyrs might not be ascribed except onely the first day of Ianuary who were put to the most exquisite deaths and torments that ever the wit or malice of men or Devils could invent to inflict we reade of no lesse then twenty nine severall deaths that they were put unto if no other be omitted 6. From the Primitive times and infancy of the Church hitherto the Turke and the Pope have acted their parts in shedding the blood of the Saints as well as the Jewes and Roman Emperours touching which for brevities sake I referre you to the Booke of Acts and Monuments Yet because a taste may please some I will insert what the Holy Ghost hath foretold in the Revelation touching the Pope who cals himselfe Christs Vicar and supreame Head of the Church the Angell
speaking of the Whore of Babylon saith She was drunke with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus Revel 17.6 Which in part was fulfilled in England under the raigne of Queene Mary when in one yeare a hundred seventy six persons of good quality were burnt for Religion with many of the common sort and in France for before these late bloody Massacres there were more then two hundred thousand which suffered Martyrdome about Transubstantiation For the chiefe persecutors of Christ and his followers are not Atheists or Turks or Jewes but such as hold great place in the Church Antichristians and Pseudochristians which makes our Saviour say they shall excommunicate you that is they shall blot out your names from among Gods people or cast you out from the visible outward communion of the Saints And indeed vertue hath ever suffered most from those which should and seeme to uphold her and intruders upon other mens right can indure any man how bad soever rather to live by them then the servants of him whom they intrude upon as you may see Mat. 21.33 to 39. where those Farmers of the Vineyard killed the servants who came to receive their Mâ—sters rent they did not kill the Theeves and Robbers and Spoylers of the Vineyard but the servants yea and the sonne too and the end of all was that they might take the Inheritance Yea the godly have ever suffered most from such as professe the same Faith and Religion with them It hath been the complaint almost of all the Fathers and Saints of God which have written that the faithfull in their severall times were hated traduced calumniated slandered reproached accused persecuted and condemned of such as professe the same Religion with them though under other pretences yet onely for their austere and holy lives that they stuck close to the truth made conscience of their wayes and would not rush so boldly into sin as others Ecclesiasticall History lib. 6. Chap. 4.5.16 7. To come unto these present times wherein we live Is the World mended with age Yea I would to God we did not find that as it is in the little world the older it grows the more diseased so in the great World the older the more vicious that the consummation of times and sinnes were not met together upon us But as commonly in a diseased body all the humours fall downe into the Legs or feet and make an Issue there so the corruption of all ages hath sliden downe into this of ours as into the feete Many saith the Apostle walke that are enemies to the Crosse of Christ Philip. 3.18 If many in Saint Paules time more now for Satan who was then bound is now loosed again out of his prison and hath great wrath because he knowes he hath but a short time Revel 12.12 To speake onely of the entertainment which piety findes among such as would bee counted not onely Christians but Protestants which principally I intend Is it possible for a man to live a conscionable and unreproveable life abstaine from drunkennesse swearing prophaning the Lords day separate himselfe from evill yea wicked company be zealous for the glory of God c. without being traduced calumniated hated slandered and persecuted for the same No it is not possible for if our righteousnesse doe but exceed the righteousnesse of a swearer or a drunkard we are sure to be persecuted for our righteousnesse as Abel was persecuted of Caine because his Sacrifice was better then his If a man walke with God he is too precise if he will be more then almost a Christian he is curious phantasticall factious and shall be mocked with the Spirit as if the Spirit of God were a Spirit of dishonour and shame How common a thing is it to wound all holinesse under the name of Puritan a name so ful of the serpents enmity as the egge of a Cockatrice is full of poyson What should I say The World is growne so much knave that 't is now a vice to be honest O the deplorable condition of these times Even the Devill himselfe durst not have been so impudent as to have scoft at holinesse in those ancient and purer times but now I could even sinke downe with shame to see Christianity every where so discountenanced our very names come into few mouths out of which they returne but with reproaches Amongst the rest of our sinnes O God be mercifull to the contempt of thy Servants True blessed be God and our gracious Soveraigne the very breath of our nostrils we suffer little but the lash of evill tongues but were wicked mens powers answerable to their wils and malice they would deliver us up to be afflicted put us out of the Synagogues excommunicate and kill us as our Saviour shewes John 16.2.33 and Mat. 24.9 Yea their enmity and hatred would be so virulent and bitter that the brother would betray the brother to death the father the sonne and the Children would rise up against their Parents and cause them to dye the kinsman against the kinsman and the friend against the friend onely for professing Christs Name and being religious as himselfe affirmes Matth. 10.34 35 36. Luke 21.16 17. Neither is it strange for this was one of the ends of Christs comming into the World as appeares Mat. 10.34 35. where himselfe saith Thinke not that I am come to send peace but the sword meaning betweene the Seed of the Serpent and the Seed of the Woman for I am come to set a man at variance against his Father the daughter-in-Law against the mother-in-Law and a mans enemies shall be they of his owne houshold Luke 12.51 52 53. Neither want we precedents of this For by whom was upright Abel persecuted and slain but by his own brother Caine Who scoffed at righteous Noah but his owne sonne Cham By whom was that vertuous and religious Lady Barbara put to death for imbracing the Christian Faith but by her owne Father Dioscorus And lastly by whom was our Saviour Christ betrayed but by his owne Disciple Judas 8. For the time to come As this strife and enmity in the wicked against the godly was early in its entrance taking its first being in the beginning of time and hath constantly continued hitherto so it will be long in continuance and endure to the end of time as the Scripture shewes Yea the last remnants of time are likely to have the most of it because as in them love shall wax cold Math. 24.12 so as love groweth cold contention groweth hot More expresly the Holy Ghost foretels That in the last dayes shall come such perilous times that all who will live godly shall suffer persecution and that toward the end of the World there shall be scoffers false accusers cursed speakers fierce despisers of them that be good such as shall turne the grace of God into wantonnesse and deny God the onely Lord and our Lord Jesus Christ And being fleshly not having
his sinnes shall be pardoned Ezek. 18.21 22. Yea there is scarce a man on earth but he thinkes to goe to Heaven Answ True the flesh prophesies prosperity to sinne yea life and salvation as the Pope promised the Powder Traytors and to this the Devill sets his seale whereupon while prosperity lasteth they can turne the grace of God into wantonnesse and even apply Christ's Passion as a warrant for their licenciousnesse and take his death as a licence to sin his Crosse as a Letters Pattent to do mischiefe Yea the Devill and sinne so infatuates and besots them that they thinke to have part in that merit which in every part they have so abused to bee purged by that bloud which now they take all occasions to disgrace to be saved by the same wounds which they sweare by and so often sweare away to have Christ an Advocate for them in the next life when they are Advocates against Christ in this and that Heaven will meete them at their last houre when all their life long they have galloped in the beaten road toward hell The Devill makes large promises and perswades his they shall have what they desire yet ever disappoints them of their hopes as he did our first Parents Diabelus mentiâ—ur ut fallet vitam pollicetur ut periâ—at saith Saint Cyprian But all one their carnall hearts shall bee flint unto God wax to the Devill who blowes this presumption into them whereby they believe the promises let goe the threatnings you shall dye saith God is heard but you shall not dye saith the Devill is believed as it fared with Eve when she eate the forbidden fruit Yea they believe the promises that they shall have them but they beleeve not the precepts to doe them nor the threatnings that they shall suffer them for their not beleeving and disobedience which shewes that they truely beleeve neither Yea this makes it plaine that either they beleeve there is no God at all or else that God is not just and true nor speakes as he meanes in his words which is worse or if they doe beleeve that he is a just and true God they beleeve also that they shall be punished as he threatens for their provoking of him and they provoke him that they may be punished which is worst of all So that take them in the best sense they are but like David's foole which saith in his heart there is no God and lives thereafter which is never a whit strange for it is usuall with them to think there is no God for whom it would make that there were none What we would have to be we are apt to beleeve I confesse it is hard for men to beleeve their owne unliefe in this case they that bee most dangerously sicke are least sensible of their owne sicknesse much more hard to make them confesse it for he whose heart speakes Atheisme will confesse with his tongue that he beleeves there is a God and that he is just and true and that every tittle of his Word is equally true which being granted this must necessarily follow that God will as well punish the disobedient as reward the obedient which in another fit they are apt enough yea too forward to beleeve For it is Satans method first to make men so senselesse as not to feele their sinnes at all and then so desperate that they feele them too much in the first fit men live as if there were no hell in the last they dye as if there were no Heaven for wicked men are altogether in extremes at first they make question whether this or that be a sinne at last they apprehend it such a sinne that they make question whether it can be forgiven either God is so mercifull that they may live how they list or so just that hee will not pardon them upon their repentance But to prevent after claps let this point be argued in the Court of thy Conscience say whether thou art guilty or not guilty He that beleeves the promises of God to be true beleeves also the commands and threatnings and thereupon feares God and makes conscience of sinne otherwise if thou beest as it were a dead man continuing under the burthen of notorious crimes without sorrow or feare or remorse or care of amendment Ephesians 2.1 If thou art of a reprobate judgement touching actions and persons esteeming good evill and evill good if the Devill hath so bewitâ—â—â—d thee that thou preferrest Hell to Heaven and blamest those that doe otherwise it Ishmael-like thou mockest or Cham-like thou scoffest at the religious or usest bitter jests against them Psalme 1.1 Ephes 5.4 If thou raysest slanders of them or furtherest them being raised Psalme 4.2 and 31.18 and 35 20. As the Red Dragon Revel 12. cast a floud of water out of his mouth after the Woman when he could not reach her with his clawes verse 15. Or any way opposest them for the opposition of goodnesse gives thee the title of wickednesse which alone is the enemy thereof and shewes that thou art a Souldier of thâ— great Dragon who goes out to make Warre with that blessed Seede which keepe the Commandements of God Revelations 12.17 these or any one of these shew that thou hast neither part nor fellowship in the Christian beliefe that thou art an Infidell yea an Atheist which is a higher degree of infidelity and that thou doest no way differ from an Heathen but only in the saying of a Paternoster a Creed and it may be the ten Commandements Neither hast thou any more of a conscience than feare which feare also arises more from the power of the Magistrate than from the omnipotency of a God But to make thy selfe confesse this examine thy beleife by thy life for infidelity is the bitter root of all wickednes and a lively saith the true Mother of all goodnesse Indeed if pride swearing prophaneing of the Lords Day drunkennesse adultery contempt of Religion and all goodnesse were fruites of Faith then the world were full of Believers but Faith purifieth the Heart Acts 15.9 and worketh by Love Gall. 5.6 Consumes our naturall unnaturall corruptions and sanctifieth the whole man throughout 1 Thess 5.23 Acts. 26.18 So that our faith to Gâ—â— is seene in our faithfullnesse to men Shew me thy faith by thy works saith S. Iames that is thy invisible beleife by thy visible life for the hand is the best commentary of the heart What a man does I am sure he thinkes not alwayes what he speakes men may say they beleeve the word but certainely they would never speake as they speake think as they think do as they do if they thought that their thoughts words and deeds should come to Iudgement If men beleeved that heaven were so sweet and hell so intolerable as the word makes them they would be more obedient upon earth the voluptuous would not say with Esau give me the pottage of pleasure take who will the birth-right of grace here and